Tianjin Library

Tianjin Library

Tianjin Library is recognized as a base for science education and outreach.

Tianjin Library is one of China’s earliest-established and historically significant provincial-level public libraries. Since its founding as the Zhili Library in 1908 (the 34th year of the Guangxu reign in the Qing Dynasty), it has been in operation for nearly a century. This century has witnessed tremendous changes in China and also marked a period of vigorous development for modern public libraries in the country. After the mid-19th century, influenced by the Reform Movement and the Self-Strengthening Movement, officials and gentry in Tianjin actively established schools, leading to a surging demand for both classical and modern texts. Visionary individuals recognized that: “In recent times, as cultures around the world advance, no nation has succeeded without establishing schools alongside libraries.” Against this historical backdrop, the Zhili Library—the earliest modern public library north of the Yangtze River—was born.

In October of the 33rd year of the Guangxu reign (November 1907), Lu Jing (Muzhai), the then Educational Commissioner of Zhili, began preparations for the establishment of the Zhili Library with the goals of “preserving national culture, promoting culture, supporting school education, and enhancing social knowledge.” (Fig. 1) The library officially opened on May 11 of the 34th year of the Guangxu reign (June 9, 1908). Initially located within the Zhili Educational Affairs Office at Dajing Road, Hebei District (now Zhongshan Road, Hebei District), its initial collection was based on 1,342 volumes originally displayed by Mr. Yan Fuxun at the Tianjin Educational Products Exhibition Hall, over 10,000 volumes provided by the Zhili Governor's Office, and 120,000 volumes specially purchased with funds requested by the Educational Commissioner’s Office. Later, Mr. Yan Fuxun donated an additional 1,200 volumes, and donations were also received from Xu Shichang, the Governor of Fengtian, among others. (Fig. 2) At its opening, the collection totaled nearly 200,000 volumes (or books). The compiled “Catalogue of the Zhili Library,” consisting of 32 volumes, comprehensively reflected the initial holdings of the library.

In the second year of the Republic of China (1913), the library moved to a building in the northern part of Zhongshan Park, marking its first independent premises. (Fig. 4) In September 1914, a public library was also established on Dongma Road. At the time, it was acclaimed as the third-largest library in China. In September 1918, the library was renamed the “First Provincial Library of Zhili.” Yan Tong (Taishun) was appointed as the head librarian. In 1928, it was renamed again as the “First Provincial Library of Hebei.” After Tianjin fell to Japanese invaders in July 1937, the library building was seized and renamed the “Second Municipal Library of Tianjin Special Municipality.” By 1945, after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, it was renamed once more as the “Hebei Provincial Tianjin Library.” An inventory revealed only about 100,000 Chinese books and 4,000 foreign language books. Thereafter, until the liberation of Tianjin, due to financial constraints, the library’s operations stagnated.

In the spring of 1929, the Tianjin Special Municipality established a municipal library and issued the “Municipal Library Planning Outline.” Wang Xianbin, a local gentry member, enthusiastically supported the library cause and sold his residence at Yangjia Garden in Nankai, comprising 114 rooms, at a low price to serve as the library building. The opening ceremony was held on June 20, 1931. (Fig. 5) After Tianjin fell in 1937, it was renamed the “First Municipal Library of Tianjin Special Municipality.” After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War in 1945, it reverted to its original name, the “Tianjin Municipal Library.”

One of China’s large-scale comprehensive public libraries. Its original location was at No. 12 Chengde Road, Heping District. The new library is situated on Fukang Road in Nankai District and opened in December 1991. Covering an area of 4 hectares, the main building has 18 floors with a construction area of over 37,000 square meters. It houses 29 specialized reading rooms, provides over 2,000 seats, and holds a collection of more than 2.8 million volumes. The library is equipped with various advanced facilities and utilizes computerized management, making it a modern library. It also features two audiovisual reading rooms outfitted with a four-channel simultaneous interpretation system, suitable for academic lectures.

The Tianjin Library Fukang Road Branch is located just north of the scenic Tianjin Water Park, within Tianjin’s planned cultural, educational, and scientific research district. Covering nearly 50 acres, it has a construction area of 32,000 square meters and can house up to 5 million volumes. The architecture adopts a clustered layout with high book stacks and low reading areas, featuring a “工”-shaped floor plan and a “山”-shaped façade. The design is symmetrical, well-arranged, and rich in traditional Chinese cultural elements. The Fukang Road Branch is positioned as a specialized information service center, providing both popularized professional literature services and in-depth processing of specialized documents. On the basis of meeting citizens’ professional information needs, it actively explores new models for specialized information services in public libraries.

The Tianjin Library Haihe Education Park Branch is located in the heart of the Haihe Education Park in Jinnan District, Tianjin. Surrounded by beautiful scenery and a strong academic atmosphere, it has a total construction area of 32,000 square meters and is designed to hold a collection of 1 million volumes. It is positioned as a center for college students’ cultural quality education, focusing on providing social sciences and literary works to meet the extracurricular reading needs of faculty, students, and local residents. The establishment of the Haihe Education Park Branch represents a major initiative in jointly advancing the construction of the public cultural service system by the public cultural and educational systems.

The Cultural Center Branch, together with the Fukang Road Branch and the Haihe Education Park Branch, form the Tianjin Library Group. The group has a total floor space of 120,000 square meters, offers open-shelf borrowing of 2.46 million volumes of books and periodicals, provides over 5,700 reading seats, and has a total designed collection capacity of 12 million volumes—ranking among the top provincial-level public libraries in China.